SUNRISE, FL - OCTOBER 19: Scottie Upshall #19 of the Florida Panthers attempts to pass the puck in front of the net while being defended by Mathew Dumba #55 of the Minnesota Wild at the BB&T Center on October 19, 2013 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

Minnesota Wild's Dany Heatley (15) battles Flprida Panthers' Jonathan Huberdeau (11) for control of the puck in the first period of an NHL hockey game on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Minnesota Wild's Mikko Koivu (9) battles Flprida Panthers' Tomas Kopecky (82), of Slovakia, for control of the puck in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

SUNRISE, FL - OCTOBER 19: Jason Pominville #29 of the Minnesota Wild chases the puck while being pursued by Tom Gilbert #77 of the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center on October 19, 2013 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

SUNRISE, Fla. — During training camp, Wild players wore T-shirts that dawned a simple message that was reiterated for weeks — time to take the next step.

The message was simple. They made the playoffs last season. This season, it was time for more.

Nine games in, the results have far from matched the expectations. After a 2-1 shootout loss to the lowly Florida Panthers on Saturday night, the Wild have three wins in nine games.

The Wild finished a four-game road swing 1-2-1. They scored five goals in those four games.

The Wild can continue to point to examples of outplaying opponents in losses. Regardless, the performances haven’t equated to wins.

“We deserve better,” coach Mike Yeo said. “That was kind of my message. We’re not a .500 team. We’re not built to be .500. We’re a better team than that.”

Yeo, meticulous with his video analysis, has tallied every scoring chance for the Wild and their opponents. He said the Wild have nearly twice as many scoring chances as their opponents. But they’ve surrendered three more goals (22) than they’ve scored through nine games.

Again Saturday night, they felt they outplayed their opponent. But again, it didn’t amount to much.

“We could sit here and argue we deserve to be better, but the bottom line is we’re not,” Yeo said. “So we have to figure it out and we have to find a way to rectify that.”

An anemic offense has been at the root of the problem. Despite a dominance in shots and puck possession, the Wild have failed to score more than two goals in seven of nine games.

They rank 24th in the NHL in goals per game (2.11). On Saturday, they failed to turn anything more than a Jonas Brodin power-play goal into something tangible.

The chances have been there. The Wild hit the post three times Saturday and nearly ended the game in overtime when Zach Parise deflected a Mikko Koivu pass. But again, an opposing goalie — this time, it was Tim Thomas, who stopped 30 of 31 shots — looked like an all-star against the Wild.

“It’s something that’s in our heads, and we have to find a way to get it out,” Yeo said. “But at the same time, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to keep battling. We’ve got a big stretch of games coming up at home, and we’ve got to be prepared to start making a run here.”

Blame for a single-goal outing Saturday falls on the 5-on-3, which went scoreless despite two extended chances with a two-man advantage, including midway through the third period.

“Two 5-on-3s and you don’t score, you don’t deserve to win the game,” Parise said. “That’s the game right there.”

Wild goalie Josh Harding has allowed one 5-on-5 goal in his seven appearances this season. He has been terrific, and the defense in front of him has played a role in that. But offensively, the Wild have gotten very little.

Minnesota even went scoreless in the shootout, with Thomas stopping attempts by Parise and Koivu.

“You can tell that guys, it’s in their heads a little bit,” Yeo said. “You can see it in the 5-on-3, you can see it in the shootout. Guys are playing their tails off and they’re not getting rewarded, so as a staff, we have to help them out here to figure out what we can do to mentally and what we can do, whether it’s personnel or whether it’s again adjusting lines or whether it’s something tactically, we have to figure something out because it’s obviously tough winning games 1-0.”

Before the game, Parise said it was kind of comical that the Wild were faced with so many questions about finishing — every team goes through the snake-bitten periods, he said, and the questions they get about them are always the same. Yeo said he’d take this period happening earlier in the season rather than later in it.

But with each one-goal game, it seems more and more difficult to break out of a scoring slump.

It’s still early, but if the Wild are indeed going to take the next step, the results have to change.

“Familiar script,” Yeo said after the game. “I’m disappointed for our guys, to be honest with you, because they’ve been playing their tails off and we’re playing great defensively. We’re playing our tails off, we’re generating chances, but we’re not winning games.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Uncategorized

Three St. Paul students from the same family have earned perfect scores on the ACT, their school announced Tuesday. Cretin-Derham Hall senior Claire McMahon is the latest in her family to score a 36. She joins brothers Matt, a 2015 graduate, and Michael, who graduated last year. “The achievement of any one of these students is impressive, but it is...

Now that the first phase of a major remodel has wrapped up at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the Metropolitan Airports Commission has moved on to the next phase, in which 30 more food concepts — some current, some new — were recently awarded bids. Restaurants and vendors will offer a wide range of dining experiences, including casual spots serving Asian...

After missing Monday’s practice with what assistant coach John Anderson called “a few little bumps and bruises,” veterans Zach Parise and Matt Cullen were back in action during Tuesday’s practice. Both players practiced full-bore with no limitations during the hour-long session at Xcel Energy Center, a good sign for the Wild considering the season opener against the Detroit Red Wings...

Splendid Moose by Insight Brewing: Hazy IPAs are all the rage right now. Clarity is tossed out the window in favor of cloudiness, resulting from copious amounts of hops added at the end of the brew cycle. The result is generally a very aromatic, juicy beer without a ton of bitterness. This hazy beauty isn’t classified as an IPA —...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.— Indiana University has suspended its student spelunking club pending an investigation into how a freshman was locked inside a cave for 60 hours. University officials announced Monday that the Office of Student Conduct is conducting an investigation into how 19-year-old Lukas Cavar became trapped inside Sullivan Cave with no food or fresh water, The Herald-Times reported. Cavar was...